yesterday

Valentine

As it is usual, the winter brought the hardest frosts towards its end. Yesterday morning a goldfinch came to the feeder, and it was so disheveled and thin as if it were composed only of a half-handful of feathers and two pearl eyes. Even if many people install feeders in the neighborhood, but the prolonged cold consumes up all the reserve energies. They must keep up a little bit more: however strongly the winter stuggles, it will not last long. I have broken the remaining nuts, it is so popular that it attracts here even the nutpeckers.

While Hungarian folk observations link the end of the winter mainly to Matthias’ day, 24 February, at the Croatians it is a little earlier. They say that it is today, on Valentine’s day that the birds celebrate their wedding. About the wild pigeons (Balkan turtle-doves) appearing around Valentine’s day they also believe to indicate the end of the winter.

And I think they are right, because besides the chirrup of the titmice I have also heard for some days the turtle-doves. With closed eyes (and, for the while being, under double blankets) it is already quite a spring feeling.

flowers from the virágom virágom blog

Friends in moonshine, Angyalföld

work in January

so here we are, it goes indeed incredibly slow. the document finally stamped on 25 January was sent over in a few minutes in e-mail. true, I also had no time to press the thing. I hope we will be able to organize it all. many enthusiastic diggers are wanted for a close weekend. I will write announcements in the staircases (unfortunately the majority of the most enthusiastic helpers have already left the country).

earth!

I have just been called from Főkert to check in details on what kind of earth I intend to order, and they have promised an e-mail. Sometimes it turns out that maybe I’m just too impatient to the Mediterranean tempo of the Hungarians.

Leaves of the fabulous tree

photo by Tibor Mester

View Angyalföld in a larger map

I every day pass by bicycle along the studio house closing our street. Since a few years ago this plaque next to its last staircase proclaims that here lived and worked the painter and designer Ádám Würtz, widely known for his book illustrations. He drew a lot.

For example

Lullaby for children: (move the mouse over the poems for the English translation)

The strange adventures of the little Greek boy and little Turkish girl reduced to the size of a little finger in the island of Cyprus

And for adults:

The nostalgic-painful narrative by Sholem Alechem on a love rooted in the childhood, a beautiful fragile little story built of almost-happenings

To Wilde

thanks to the Medicina publisher, the Anangaranga enriched the extremely poor erotic book publishing of the Kádár era. The text is likely to have disappointed many readers, but the colorful illustrations with the women dawning in pearl color were really well done

Books illustrated by Ádám Würtz:

Sólem Áléchem, ÉNEKEK ÉNEKE, Európa, 1959.

Vermes Magda, HOLDFÉNY – klasszikus elbeszélések, Móra, 1962.

Szederjei Magda, AZ ÖSVÉNY TITKA, Móra, 1964.

William Shakespeare SZENTIVÁNÉJI ÁLOM, Magyar Helikon, 1972.

Hárs László, 10X10=100 MESE, Móra, 1973.

József Attila, ALTATÓ, Móra, 1974.

Kormos István, LUCA SZÉKE, Móra, 1974.

Szabó Lőrinc, LÓCI ÓRIÁS LESZ, Móra, 1974.

Hárs László, HOL VOLTAM, HOL NEM VOLTAM, Móra, 1975.

Ignácz Rózsa, HAJDANÁBAN ZAMBIÁBAN, Móra, 1978.

Peonidu-Vangelió, HIPP-HOPP KALANDJAI Móra, 1978.

Varga Domokos, NÉPEK KENYERE, Móra, 1978.

William Shakespeare SZONETTJEI, Magyar Helikon, 1979.

Ágh István, HÁNYAT NÉZEK A NAPTÁRBAN?, Móra, 1980.

Timur Zulfikarov, NASZREDDIN HODZSA ELSŐ SZERELME, Móra, 1980.

Vátszjájana, KÁMA-SZÚTRA, Medicina, 1982.

J. M. Barrie, Tótfalusi István, PÁN PÉTER, Móra, 1983.

Bakó Ágnes, ARCOK A BELGA TÜKÖRBEN, Móra, 1986.

Kaljánamalla, ANANGARANGA, Medicina, 1986.

Tuomo Lahdelma, A TEREMTŐ KAKUKKJA -  finn gyerekversek, Móra, 1988.

work, January

the collector of fallen leaves assembled by us in the front-yard of our garden seems to work well; since someone a couple of months ago threw a foam mattress and a surplus carpet into it, there was no similar case. The other we constructed last week next to it is in order, too. However, into the two boxes built for the other garden they threw all kind of waste, from beer cans to construction litter. The reason might be that those living there have not yet seen our continuous work, and therefore has not yet been established even that minimum level of necessary cooperation that they do not destroy what we do; but it can also come from a lack of interpretation, or from that phenomenon, characteristic of the culture of poverty, that any new element suitable for containing is interpreted as a waste deposit. To improve this, I have made a new inscription as an experiment, and also increased the font size of the existing one. So far I could have laminated only two sheets. I nailed them onto the boxes this morning, but maybe I will make some more.

“This container, made of pallets helps us to keep the garden in order during the winter,
and it also helps the animals living around us. We have prepared it for
containing fallen leaves, please do not throw any litter into it!”

and this is the old one, with larger letters (the first paragraph is the same, while the rest describes the way of life of the hedgehogs using the containers filled with fallen leaves as a winter hostel).

(The hanging branch belongs to a forsythia, already full of buds.)

The next task is to bring the litter accumulated this far into garbage and selective collectors, I had no time for that in the morning. I am thinking what we can do if garbage starts to re-accumulate; possibly nothing more than this, or if it continues like this, we will have to break the containers, which would be a shame. Meanwhile, in the lack of time I could not yet prepare the sheets with various inscriptions, called “nature trails” by L., although it is time to do so, because otherwise maybe they may be amortized before the development is complete, we have seen examples for that.